[7.2/10] I can see why MTV decided to air “The Party” as the first episode rather than this one. Though ostensibly the first episode of the show, “Heroes and Villains” isn’t much of an introduction to the characters or the world, and features a much lamer villain (albeit one with an interesting motivation).
The thing I appreciate about this episode is that it’s going for some moral complexity, even if it’s not necessarily deep. There’s plenty of not so easy conflicts here: the University wanting to put in a new science center vs. the students whose low cost housing would be torn down to build it, Mary Jane’s activism vs. Harry’s sense of responsibility to his father’s legacy. They even put together a nice contrast between Spider-Man and Turbojet, with the bad guy playing Robin Hood -- breaking the law and getting praise for it -- while Spidey thinks he’s doing right, but is maintaining the status quo and is still a pariah.
There’s some genuine ambiguity that touches on real issues there, and even if it’s not necessarily thoroughly explored, I appreciate the inclusion.
The problem is that every character is fairly one-dimensional here save Spidey, which isn’t unusual for this sort of show, but still. Mary Jane in particular is ill-served, with a generic activist streak and a weakly-done crush on Peter. That’s another issue: the voice acting. Maybe it’s just the awkward, slow-motion puppet vibe for a lot of the characters, but the vocal presentation (save for NPH) mainly feels like people talking to one another over the phone from separate rooms rather than people having real life conversations. That’s always a pitfall in animation, but the show doesn't seem to do much to overcome it.
It’s also frustrating that the episode half-throws away it’s complexity, with Spider-Man being able to win the day by just telling a crowd who hates his guts that the guy they love said something bad about them. Why would they believe him? Turbojet as a whole is a neat idea, but lame bad guy, with his robotic speed suit not doing much for me visually or in terms of its powers.
Still, I’m probably being overly negative in the write-up here. This is perfectly fine for the most part. The character interactions are hit and miss, and the art style is still not great, but the push and pull about what the right thing to do in the ESU situation carries a lot of the episode and carries it well, even if the ending (which turns MJ into a standard damsel in distress for no reason) left me cold.
Overall, a solid episode with some notable flaws.
Shout by WardVIP 8BlockedParent2022-10-20T20:55:08Z
Edit: Didn't realize the episodes aired out of order. This is the 8th episode. Look on this for the production order https://en.wikipedia.org/?curid=1912798#Episodes
Luckily Andrew said something that made me realize it. I still stand by all that i said about the episode.
Electro's supervillain origin story is that he tried to enter a college fraternity and failed. Rubbish.
Then, he throws something at an electric billboard in anger. It explodes. He becomes Electro. Rubbish.
Overall the episode was ok, with Dillon's character going through it all and becoming Electro, but the origin is boring and not good, and it's not a good Spider-Man episode.
Peter is kind of a wuss and not very likeable.
Spider-Man is so weak that he punched a car windscreen trying to break through, but only cracked it, and he hurt his hand. That is absolutely stupid.
The visuals are ugly because it's that early 3d animated look. It's possibly more ugly than the previous show, Spider-Man Unlimited.
The show is supposed to be a sequel to the first Rami film, but doesn't feel like it.